Winning the war against
democracy

A month has passed since the May 13 midterm
elections in the Philippines. While the elections
were orderly and peaceful, there have been many
reported incidents that have marred the electoral
process. For instance, as NAMFREL and other
watchdogs had warned, a significant number of PCOS
machines malfunctioned. COMELEC Chair Brillantes has
said, “we may not pay the entire amount if we can
show that the problems and defects were from
Smartmatic." 258 out of the 78,000 PCOS machines
used in the polls bogged down. The report of the
Random Manual Audit (RMA), which should have been
done on election night, has not been released yet
even though the sample of 234 precincts is a small
one. Fears, that the results may be “massaged”, are
not allayed by the non-reporting of the RMA results.
However, the automated counting system has made
wholesale cheating more difficult, particularly the
“dagdag-bawas” (adding-subtracting votes from the
official tallies) that used to plague the counting
of votes.

The decades old problems of crowded classrooms and
securing the secrecy of the ballot remain headaches.
Turn out among the Philippines' 52 million voters
was around 75%. Armed groups still harassed voters
in the declared hot-spots, vote-buying remained
rampant in many areas.

At the national level, we saw a loose pro-government
alliance win enough seats to continue dominating
both houses. Despite the reported incidents, most of
the electoral results including the national
senatorial elections are not being contested. Thus,
it can be said that the Philippine elections went
relatively well. However, this observation does not
negate the need to improve the conduct of our
elections, to safeguard the will of the people and
the democratic process. Perhaps, we can look to our
neighboring countries experiences and gain insights.

The Pakistan elections of May 11 were clearly the
triumph of the forces of democracy, in spite of the
violence that marred the electoral process.

Ms. Rasul (4th from left) with international
election observers from ANFREL and NDI

I was part of the leadership group of the joint
election observation mission of the National
Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Asian Network for
Free Elections (ANFREL). The leadership delegation,
led by former Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne
Bondevik, included former Minister of Justice of
Ireland Nora Owen, former U.S. congressman for
Missouri Russ Carnahan, NDI's Vice President Shari
Bryan and NDI Director for Asia Programs Peter
Manikas. I represented NAMFREL and ANFREL.

The mission consisted of 48 observers from 18
countries. From ANFREL, the countries included
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Philippines. Our
observers were deployed to Islamabad and three
provinces - Punjab, Sindh and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KPK).

Due to security concerns, we were unable to directly
observe the process in Balochistan and the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). However, we were
able to meet with candidates, parties and
nongovernmental organizations in those areas. Hour
long conference calls were organized with leaders
who could not be in Islamabad due to their campaign.

After five days observing the elections in Pakistan,
I can safely say that the process was a momentous
victory of the people’s political will against
extremist groups that warred against democracy. The
elections also resulted in several historic firsts.
Allow me to relate what I had observed.

While Islamabad was free from electoral violence,
the tension level was high due to daily news about
bombings, assassinations and constant threats from
the Pakistan Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan).
These did not deter the people, particularly the
young and women, from campaigning. On Election Day,
Pakistani youth and women showed up in record
numbers, defying the threats made by the Taliban.

The Pakistan Taliban had targeted political parties
associated with the previous government: the
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its main coalition
partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the
Awami National Party (ANP). President Asif Ali
Zardari, the husband of the late Benazir Bhutto who
was assassinated on December 27, 2007, leads PPP.
The United Nations (UN) recorded 196 deaths due to
election-related violence, including at least seven
candidates, from March 16, when the National
Assembly was dissolved, until May 7. The Taliban had
distributed a written threat against all individuals
intending to vote, stating that elections were
un-Islamic. The Taliban threat and the campaign
violence resulted to low turnout in the
conflict-affected areas of Balochistan and FATA.

At stake were 272 general seats in the National
Assembly as well 60 seats reserved for women, and
ten seats reserved for non-Muslims. At the
provincial level, 577 general seats were contested
in the four Provincial Assemblies together with 128
seats reserved for women, and 23 seats reserved for
non-Muslims.

The 2013 elections have set the stage for the
country’s first transfer of power from one
democratically elected government to the next. This
will be the first time, after 6 decades, that an
administration will have completed its term of
office and will be succeeded through a democratic
electoral process.. Tens of millions of Pakistanis
participated and expressed their support for the
democratic process by voting despite the threats of
the Taliban. The Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP) estimated voter turnout around 60 percent.

The Pakistani voters’ courage and resolve,
particularly the young and the women, reminded me of
the political will of our own nation during the
campaign and election of our icon of democracy, the
late former President Corazon C. Aquino. As our
NDI-ANFREL statement noted, “in casting their
ballots despite the mounting violence was a victory
for democracy and the people of Pakistan.”

I was amazed by the number of women who ran for
office, in spite of the Taliban threat against women
candidates and voters. A total of 456 women ran for
seats in the National Assembly and Provincial
Assemblies, which is more than twice as many women
candidates from the 2008 general elections. This
included the lone female candidate in FATA. Though
numerically higher, women candidates constituted
only 2.9 percent of the total number of candidates
running for general seats.

For the first time in their history, a woman ran for
a seat in the conflict-affected area of FATA. Nusrat
Begum, the first female parliamentary candidate from
that tribal region, knew fully well the overwhelming
obstacles she had to face. Ubiquitously accompanied
by her son or another male family member, Begum
campaigned "to give women their rights, the rights
that they deserve." Even though she eventually lost
by a huge margin, Begun made her presence felt in a
Taliban-dominated region.

More parties and candidates participated in these
elections than in the previous general elections. In
Balochistan, parties that boycotted the 2008
elections reentered the electoral process and, for
the first time in the nation’s history, political
parties fielded candidates in FATA.

A crucial factor in the success of the electoral
process has been the cooperation of the government
and the political parties to improve the legal
framework for the elections. Their cooperation
resulted in the selection of a Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC), a unanimous choice of the
parties, and the establishment of a framework for
designating national and provincial caretaker
governments. The Election Commission of Pakistan
(ECP), even as it has been criticized for its
actions (or inaction) on several matters including
the electoral violence, did enjoy a high-level of
public confidence. The ECP cleaned the voters’ list
and developed a database of voters, which could be
accessed by mobile phone to provide the voter
information on their assigned precincts. This
innovation is certainly worth emulating by the
Philippine COMELEC. Perhaps Globe and SMART can
consider following the example of the Pakistani
telephone companies, providing free-of-charge SMS
for the voters. I was particularly impressed by the
excitement and will of the young Pakistanis. In one
polling station where I was observing the canvass
and taking pictures, a young man asked us to take
his photo. He was a watcher for the PTI, the party
of Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan who has
attracted the young by his campaign of “Change” (ala
Obama). I thought that was a strange request, as
election agents normally don't want their photos
taken by observers. The young man said he wanted
proof of his participation in an election that he
believed would change Pakistan for the better.

To him and the millions who braved the threat
against their lives, I pay tribute. The Pakistani
people have spoken. I can only pray that their
political will remains strong and constant, as the
electoral process is only the first step on the
difficult road to democracy.

On June 6, a smooth and peaceful democratic
transition transpired from President Zardari to
Nawaz Sharif. As Zardari the oath of the office of
Prime Minister to Sharif, the Pakistani people can
only hope that reforms will take place to strengthen
the democracy they had worked so hard for.

If the Pakistani people will stay united behind
their proposed reform of the political institutions,
then they will have proved Aristotle right when he
said, “In a democracy the poor will have more power
than the rich, because there are more of them, and
the will of the majority is supreme.”

If not, and if reforms do not take root, then
Bertrand Russell will be proved correct when he
observed, “Democracy is the process by which people
choose the man who'll get the blame.”

(Read the preliminary statement of the joint
NDI-ANFREL international election observation
mission to Pakistan here:
http://bit.ly/11Xx2yg)